Pleasantries
by Jocelyn
Summary: In the aftermath of Civil War, Ragnarok, and Batman vs. Superman, Diana senses a threat to Earth and seeks out the fugitive Avengers to consult with Thor. In the process, she meets Steve Rogers and is forced to confront her lingering grief for Steve Trevor. Steve Rogers is also forced to face down his own demons.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note:**_ _Here follows a short story of my musings on a world where the Justice League and Avengers coexist, and Diana of Themyscira seeks out Thor and the rest of the fugitive Avengers when she senses the threat of Thanos. This story takes place between Batman vs. Superman and Justice League (based only loosely upon the BvS movie plot because the Avengers don't know all the details) and after Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok (handwaving that Thor and Bruce returned to Earth unharmed). This fic fanon also assumes that the Asgardians, the Aesir, and the Olympians interacted at some points of Earth's ancient history. This fic covers solely Diana's initial introduction to the fugitive Avengers and her reaction to a blond world war veteran named Steve._

 **Pleasantries**

 **Chapter One**

The safe house thirty miles from Bordeaux, France was definitely the nicest one the "Secret Avengers" had occupied since departing Wakanda. It was actually a rental, available only to those who had certain connections - which Clint and Natasha did. It was a peaceful place, surrounded by acres of garden and countryside, all accessed by one narrow road that wasn't terribly well-maintained, discouraging siteseers when there was a wider, scenic highway between the city and the wineries ten miles to the south.

Officially, the Avengers were tourists on a "meditation retreat" which was funny for the first day or two. The house was a little tight with eight people, but they managed.

Thor, Clint, and Natasha did most of the supply runs into the nearest village. At the house, it was as if they'd stepped into another dimension, completely apart from the world.

It was warm with early summer. Sometimes Thor slept outside "under the stars" as he put it. Then Clint or Sam did. At their urging, Steve tried it, and found that it really was as peaceful as they claimed.

After that, almost nobody had to share rooms again because there were at least three Avengers spending the night outdoors, sprawled on a lounge chair on the terrace or even in a bedroll in the grass. Once or twice all eight of them slept under the stars.

Steve, Sam, and Bucky ran on the paths and grass of the countryside. They sparred, they practiced. Just in case they'd be needed again.

There seemed to be strife all over the world. Batman and Superman had fought in front of half the planet, and rumor had it Superman was dead. "You ever meet him?" Sam asked asked Steve.

"Which?"

"Either."

Steve shook his head. "I kind of wanted to meet Superman, but never got the chance. We seemed to keep out of each other's way. Batman had some kind of frenemy thing going on with Stark, so they kept clear of each other."

"I wonder what they had to say about the Accords. Somehow I can't see Batman registering himself."

"Yeah, me neither."

Below the hill that Steve and Bucky had just sprinted and Sam had staggered along after, Thor and Wanda were sparring, pitting their powers against each other in a semi-controlled environment. Steve could tell even from that distance that Wanda was being too tentative, but rather than try to reassure or scold her, Thor just let out his bellowing laugh and denied her hits did more than tickle him.

Thor was a patient instructor, and Steve sighed, watching them. "I wish he hadn't gone back to Asgard after Ultron. Maybe things would've been different."

"Yeah," Bucky agreed. Bucky clearly liked Thor and Bruce; they never looked at Bucky as if expecting him to flip out at a moment's notice. Even though Wakandan medicine, aided by Wanda's power, had worked the deadly trigger words out of Bucky's mind, Steve had to admit that Nat, Clint, and Sam tended to watch Bucky warily out of the corner of their eyes.

They'd been in Bordeaux for two weeks when Thor called an abrupt halt to a training session and summoned the rest of the group to the house. "Someone approaches. Not a mere sightseer, I think."

Down on the terrace, Steve squinted down the road, but the hills hid it from view around a curve. "By car or air?"

"Car. But when the rough surface damaged the vehicle, its driver decided to simply pick it up and carry it. I think..." Thor tilted his head, thoughtful. "I'll know more when they come closer, but this didn't seem a mere enhanced. Nor is it any of our friends."

Thor still regarded Vision, Tony, and Rhodey as friends, and refused to be dissuaded. Strangely enough, though all three official Avengers must have realized that Thor was in contact with the fugitives, none, not even Rhodey, had taken it upon themselves to try to follow him to their safe house.

Their visitor got back into the car at the base of the last hill, and the vehicle rattled and shuddered into view, its wheels flopping and its frame noisily protesting the abuse.

From inside stepped a beautiful woman, dark and lithe, dressed like any one of the French fashionistas Steve had seen on his brief stints in the towns. At first glance, she didn't look to be enhanced, but Thor sucked in his breath.

The woman leaned against the car, wrinkled her nose at the flat tires, and remarked, "Thor of Asgard. You might have demanded that your landlords fix the road as a condition of the lease."

Thor motioned the others to wait and cautiously approached her. "As it happens, the landlord offered. We replied that it wasn't necessary. We'd rather deter curious passers-by." He studied her and concluded, "As it is, I think you had no real need of a car, my lady. You could have simply jogged."

A sly smile curved her face. "So you know? Has someone been gossiping about me or are Aesir really as keen-eyed as I used to hear?"

"Hey," called Clint. "Want to introduce us sometime today?"

Thor chuckled. "She's not yet honored me with her name, but in this world of mortals, there's no mistaking one of the fair and noble Amazons of Themyscira."

" _Amazons?_ " murmured Bucky.

"Have you not hung around this crowd long enough to stop being surprised by weird shit?" Sam replied.

The stranger smirked at them, then her eyes met Steve's, and she faltered, for reasons he could only guess at. She quickly looked back to Thor. "I am Diana, Princess of Themyscira, daughter of Hippolyta."

Thor made a noise of shock. "No! It can't be! Hippolyta's little princess?" He laughed and crossed the lawn to meet her. "I'm honored and delighted, my lady. No doubt you know, I am Thor, son of Odin."

Diana tilted her head, looking puzzled. "I've heard many stories of you from my people and the humans, but surely I'd remember if we'd ever met."

Bowing over her hand, Thor chuckled. "Perhaps not, for you were still swaddled when I last saw you in Themyscira. And I was but a youth, still training and untested in battle." She blinked, then grinned, and Thor turned to the others still raising her hand in his. "My friends, let me present you with a most noble visitor. The Aesir were once great friends of the Amazons, and I met this fair princess when she was a babe in arms. It's no wonder I sensed your power approaching from a distance, daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus."

"Zeus, huh? More gods in our midst," said Bruce. "What brings you here?"

She dropped her polite smile and looked at Thor. "I think you know. You must sense it as I do. A menace approaches, more powerful than anything this world has ever faced, from farther away than any stranger has ever come. Kal - that is, Superman sensed it as well, before he died. He warned us."

"It's true, then?" Steve asked. "Superman's dead?"

For a few seconds, she just stared at Steve, as if she'd lost her train of thought. Then she went on quickly, "Yes, I'm afraid it is. He died saving the world and in battle, though that's less consolation than I used to think."

"Krypton may not be one of the Nine Realms, but the halls of Valhalla are open to all who perish in valor," said Thor. "He feasts there now in glory and honor." Diana looked down and didn't answer, so it was Thor's turn to hurry the conversation along. "I've sensed the same threat as you, and last returned to Asgard to try and learn more. We're preparing the Avengers as best we can, while fugitives from their own people."

"They're fools," she muttered. Seeing the team bristle, she explained, "The crafters of the Sokovia Accords. I answer to no government, and nor do Batman or Thor. That we fail to save everyone doesn't give them the right to own us."

"Sounds like we're on the same page, then," said Sam. Diana nodded, giving him a small smile - but once again her eyes caught Steve's, then she looked away. "So you Amazons, you're gods too?"

"No. We're closer related to humans than Aesir. We live far longer and have certain gifts from our gods, but not the powers such as Thor's people."

"All evidence to the contrary," Thor put in. "I witnessed some of Odin's finest warriors in combat practice against the army of Themyscira; they're fierce and formidable warriors. My friend Bruce has seen Asgard and her Valkyrie in combat now; he knows the weight of that comparison."

"No denying it," Bruce agreed. He gave Thor a droll smile. "So how'd you measure up?"

Thor actually blushed, and Clint and Sam let out gleeful snorts. "Aw, yeeeah!" said Clint. "This'll be good."

"I was very young - "Thor's explanation was cut off by bellows of laughter from the others - even Wanda and Nat, and even Steve couldn't help laughing. "Yes, yes, you've already guessed the outcome. As a young and callow youth, I made the mistake of challenging General Antiope, leader of Hippolyta's army and her finest, most powerful warrior."

"And? _And?!_ " demanded Clint.

"And...she thrashed me," Thor finished sheepishly, to a roar of laughter and applause.

Wiping his eyes, Clint gasped, "Oh, man. Lemme guess, you didn't take it too well, getting your ass kicked by a girl?" Thor didn't deny it, and they all broke up laughing again. "I wanna meet that general - what's her name again?"

Diana's face fell. They all saw it, and the humor of the moment vanished. Thor looked stricken. "My lady, I...no." Diana looked down and nodded. "When?"

"By human reckoning, almost exactly one hundred years ago," Diana murmured. She pulled something from her shoulder bag, a dark gold tiara. Thor stared at it, then closed his eyes. "It's a...a complicated story, the events that brought me from Themyscira to defend this world. The war to end all wars crossed the barrier between this world and Themyscira and we came under assault when the Germans strayed too close to our shores. We repelled them, but not without losses." She ran her fingers over the tiara, but put it back in her bag instead of putting it on her head. "This was hers. She trained me, taught me all she knew, so I carry and wear it in battle, in her memory."

"I'm so deeply sorry, my lady. That is a terrible loss to your family, and your people," said Thor softly.

She glanced at Steve again and turned entirely towards Thor, as if to force herself to quit looking at him. Steve didn't think he saw hostility in her eyes, but she had a smile for almost anyone in the group except him. Odd. _Then again, maybe not. I'm responsible for the breakup of the Avengers. If Superman's dead, we might have wound up the last force capable of defending the world from whatever it is that's got Thor so spooked._

"With the pleasantries finished, can we talk? I realize you don't know me well, but I came because I needed longer eyes than humans have, and you were the only person I know of who's been off the planet."

"Of course. Excuse us, my friends." Thor gave Steve and several of the others meaningful looks before beckoning Diana away, and they walked off down the hill.

"Hidden message?" Clint asked Wanda.

"Not that hidden. He thinks she's trustworthy, and I agree," Wanda replied.

Steve couldn't resist. "Doesn't seem to like me much, does she?"

"Aw, come on," said Bruce, but Wanda shook her head.

"It's not what you think," she told Steve. "She came here because she approves of what we did in Germany."

There were several beats while they all waited, so Bucky prompted, "So what is it?"

Wanda gave him a gentle punch on the metal arm (replaced with Vibranium courtesy of the Wakandans). "None of your business."

* * *

"Please forgive me for bringing back painful memories," said Thor, once they were out of earshot of his friends.

Diana sighed, gazing out over the hills as they walked. "There's nothing to forgive. You couldn't have known. So much has changed since either of us were untested youths, hasn't it?"

"You can't be that far out of youth," he remarked. Diana of Themyscira couldn't have reached womanhood very long ago, by Aesir standards.

"No, I suppose not. Spend enough time around humans, their perception of time rubs off. A hundred years on Earth wasn't much to me until I came here."

Thor stopped and considered her. "That too gives you cause for pain, I see. Not just for the fall of Superman?"

She nodded. "You never saw either of the two great wars of the last century, did you?"

"I did not, but I've heard tales of them. My friends Bucky and Steve - " he marked her flinch, "they saw battle and the cruelty of the second war. If you've been here among the mortals, no doubt you witnessed it firsthand."

"Yes. In the second world war, I fought more clandestinely than in the first. The memories of the first were still too powerful." She shook her head as if to try and shake them off, then looked up at Thor. "I suppose my mother didn't tell you the significance of my parentage?"

"That you were born to be the slayer of Ares? _She_ didn't," said Thor. "But the Olympians were never very good at keeping secrets, so Asgard knew. Ares would find no sanctuary in the eternal realm, and it was forbidden to speak of such things. We didn't know you'd come into your birthright until Heimdall reported that Ares had fallen. It meant your great purpose was achieved."

Diana didn't relish her victory as one who had defeated so great an evil should have done. It didn't take Thor long to discern the reason. "That victory too wasn't without cost," she said. "Terrible cost. And a truth of this world and these people that I'd yet to learn."

"What truth was that?"

"That conflicts between them isn't the influence of Ares alone. It's their nature, and nothing I or even the entire army of Amazons do will bring peace and justice over all of them."

Thor sighed. "So you have indeed found the truth of them. It's painful, never more so than when we see good men fall." She flinched again. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to cause you more pain. And I admire your conviction still more, that you've sought out the Avengers in spite of that. You can't have failed to see our troubles."

She sighed. "No, and I admit I should have come before now. It's..." She chuckled, but there was sorrow in it. "It's complicated."

"Have you met any of my friends? I didn't think you were familiar to them."

"No, like the rest of the world, I've simply seen their exploits on television and Internet," she said. "Until recently, I suppose I reasoned that you were doing just fine without me."

"There are many perils in this world, and sadly, some of the greatest are bred by her own people and visited upon the most innocent." Diana nodded, a quick jerk of her head. "Even so, you and I who are bulletproof may try to stand between the innocent and the aggressors."

She let out a choked, bitter laugh. "Maybe you're bulletproof, Asgardian. Amazons are not. We learned this the day the Germans came. It's how Antiope fell. I may be less vulnerable to them, but my family are not." Diana looked over her shoulder back towards the house where the rest of Thor's friends remained. Again, Thor saw her gaze linger upon Steve.

"The pleasantries may be over, but I think there's something more you're holding back. If you saw the second world war, can it be that our Steve is familiar to you?" he pressed gently.

She flinched harder than before. "N-no. Nothing like you think. I knew of Captain America, of course, everyone did, but I never met him in person. He seemed..." She broke off, and couldn't continue.

Thor cautiously held out a hand. He barely knew this lady, for all of her kind had fallen out of contact with Asgard while Earth itself was still a child realm. But he felt a deep kinship to her, and if it were possible, he would offer her comfort. He took a guess. "He reminds you of someone?"

Her arms folded as if to ward off a chill (impossible in this fine weather), she nodded without looking at him. "It's not a story I'm ready to tell. No one alive in this world knows it, though you're not the first to ask."

"As you will. You're among friends here, Diana, and your aid would be welcome in preparing for the evil that has the Earth in its sites."

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

 _ **Coming Soon:**_ _A poison gas attack brings the Secret Avengers into action, and injuries to one of the team forces Diana to confront her own lingering grief._

 _This story is fully drafted, and updates will come every few days._

 **Please don't forget to review!**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Notes:** Many thanks to you all for the feedback as this fic begins! Please keep it coming! This fic (as most of you have probably guessed) takes place at a point after Civil War when Bucky has been freed from Hydra's influence on his mind. My theory is that Wanda, along with advanced Wakandan medicine and the generosity of King T'Challa, took part in removing Hydra's conditioning (and got Bucky as a surrogate big brother in the process). However, removing Bucky's PTSD (or that of anybody else on the team, for that matter) is impossible. Also, this isn't a Stucky fic. I love a good Stucky, but this is merely intense platonic friendship a la Frodo and Sam, especially since Steve is still grieving for Peggy, and Bucky is still too traumatized for romantic/sexual pursuits._

 **Chapter Two**

As best Bucky could tell, Thor and Diana were immured together muttering about the movement of the stars and the signs beyond mortal senses for the rest of the week. After a couple of days, Thor persuaded Bruce to help them, and while Diana looked dubious at first, she and Bruce ended up having an animated conversation that lasted until after midnight, poring over stuff on a laptop.

"What is it they're searching for?"

"Signs of whoever - or _what_ ever - is trying to collect these powerful gems," said Wanda. "Whether the presence of gems here on Earth is drawing the attacker or if the gems are just a side benefit."

"Ominous as all hell whichever way you look at it," said Clint, studying two silhouettes on the roof. (Bruce was below them on the balcony.) "Have they had any luck?"

"Not much. There's evidence in Asgard and the worlds that Thor and Bruce visited, and Bruce's work with radiation can reveal more signs. But they don't answer the central question: who is it and what are their intentions?"

Sam sprawled on the grass, examining the first stars peeking through the jewel-colored sky. "All that's in the hands of smarter people than us. I wanna know the big issue - why's she scared of Cap?"

" _Sam_ ," Steve muttered in protest. Bucky laughed quietly.

Diana was warm and friendly with the rest of the team, but cautious and, well, _jittery_ , for lack of a better word, whenever she had to interact with Steve. And she only interacted with him when she had to. But Bucky saw the glances she stole at him when he wasn't looking.

Wanda rolled her eyes. "And I'm not going to tell you that 'big issue.' It's nothing the Avengers need to know, and I violate people's privacy enough as it is. You'll have to wait until she's ready to talk about it."

* * *

The Secret Avengers deployed ten days after Diana arrived in response to some gas that was turning people into zombies in Dubai. Luckily, the gas didn't seem to be killing anybody; it just made them wander around mumbling to themselves while a gang of gas-masked thugs relieved them of their wallets and drained their bank accounts.

People went into some kind of rebound once the stuff wore off and panicked, adding to the chaos.

That left all human Avengers on the sidelines at a _very_ long distance, while Thor, Diana, Bucky, and Steve (the two supersoldiers wearing borrowed gas masks) moved in. Bruce opted to stay with the distance crew and analyze the gas for an antidote and some kind of counter-agent for the withdrawal symptoms.

Wanda could direct her power for a fairly wide distance, so she stayed with the unprotected humans and cleared the gas from the city, and put the victims to sleep.

Diana got...a little agitated, to say the least, once the team found the dirtbags responsible. She beat the living shit out of the leader - some loser American who'd recruited himself a little militia under the guise of fighting ISIS (translation: anybody with dark skin and/or religious garb in a wealthy Middle Eastern city).

Bucky pulled her off the guy - only for her to accidentally dislodge Bucky's gas mask, and yeah, that wasn't good.

Natasha had the presence of mind to turn the coms to recording mode once Bucky started talking to himself. Maybe it was a little callous, but some of the things he murmured were Hydra-related, and it was always possible that Bucky hadn't consciously remembered them before. Steve led him back to the rendezvous, where he remained completely docile, but no way was that going to hold once the withdrawal kicked in.

"Have we got that supersoldier sedative handy?" asked Clint. "Wanda's a little busy keeping people from running off bridges."

"Yeah, I've got it," said Bruce, digging through their ample medical supplies. "I want to wait until the gas effects have stopped. This sedative will slow his metabolism way down. We want the gas all gone before we put him under."

Wanda didn't take her eyes off the city, but held out an arm and tugged Bucky against her side. "It's all right, Steve, go back to work. We'll keep him safe." Bruce parked himself on Bucky's right, hypo-syringe at the ready.

Reluctantly, Steve obeyed.

Bruce had never managed to put a single monitoring device on Bucky Barnes without argument - until today. Bucky submitted quietly to the vitals monitors and even the brainwaves halo that Bruce and Tony had designed (but Bucky hated because it reminded him of _something_ back at Hydra). Bruce felt shitty for doing it when Bucky wasn't capable of resisting. Still, the readings might have more useful information on counteracting the gas and its withdrawal effects.

Thor, Diana, and Steve were all back in a few more hours. Most of the Dubai victims were sleeping the withdrawal off, troops with hazmat gear and masks were moving in, and the attackers were secured. Bucky was still glassy-eyed and lost in his own mind when Diana hurried up to him, all apologies.

Steve, priorities in life unchanged, nearly bowled her over to get to his friend. No other victim had shown any awareness of the here and now beyond following a direct instruction, but Bucky blinked at Steve and smiled. "Your mom's name was Sarah."

"Aw, hell," muttered Sam.

Steve sighed as Bucky laughed softly, "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

Everybody except Sam exchanged baffled looks, and Steve pulled Bucky to his chest. Bucky was as content to stay there as he'd been on Wanda's shoulder. Maybe more so.

However, there was no missing when the gas wore off. Alarms on Bruce's laptop squealed as Bucky's blood pressure, pulse, and brainwaves recovered from their artificial low by shooting off the chart. Bucky cried out, rigid and wild-eyed. "Shit, sedative now! Right now!" Clint ordered, but Bruce was already moving.

"Buck! Bucky, easy! C'mon, stay with me!" Steve shouted, wrapping Bucky in a bear hug, but when Bruce hesitated, he nodded. "Do it."

Bruce shoved the syringe against Bucky's thigh and discharged it. For a few seconds, Bucky just struggled, blind and terrified, then his eyes fluttered and rolled back, and he collapsed, limp in Steve's arms. "Check his breathing, check it," Bruce warned. "A surge and a crash like that, even a supersoldier might go into shock."

After monitoring Bucky's pulse and breathing for several tense minutes, everyone sighed in relief. Steve glanced up and caught Diana's stricken expression. "It's okay. It was an accident, it happens. We all know that."

Diana sighed. "Even so, I'm very sorry. I wouldn't have put him through that for the world."

Steve mustered a smile. "I know. Thanks."

It was a tremendous relief to get back to the house in Bordeaux without being tracked. Steve carried Bucky to the room with the biggest window upstairs and threw the balcony doors wide open. "Any idea when he'll come out of it?" he asked Bruce as the rest of the team trailed in.

"The supersoldier sedative runs four to six hours under normal circumstances, but these definitely weren't normal," Bruce mused, studying the readings on his laptop. "Wanda's sedation of the other victims held for a natural sleep cycle. From the hospital reports Clint hacked for me, that's more than enough to see them through the rebound. The gas was a powerful hypnotic, it's in the system hard, depresses it hard, leaving the victim in a highly suggestive state, but when it wears off, all the systems that were suppressed come exploding back - too hard, in some cases. So far there've been thirty-one fatalities out of almost three thousand victims."

Steve winced, but Sam caught Wanda when she started to turn away. "Hey. If you hadn't cleared the gas when you did, _and_ sedated the rest of those victims through the withdrawal, it would've been a lot worse."

"He's right," said Diana. "Those people in the city were helpless. You saved more lives than the rest of us combined."

Wanda smiled, but she was still a little shaky. She crossed to the bedside and kissed Bucky on the forehead. "Call me if he gets restless. I should be able to help." Then she left in a hurry.

Most of the team trickled out after here, except for Bruce, Diana, and Steve. "She still gets upset about mass casualty events," Bruce explained. "Not that we all don't hate them, but it's really hard on her. She lived through one when she was ten."

"She's a brave woman," Diana mused. "I read a great deal about her after the events in Sokovia. To do what she did - ally herself with evil men, serve them, and then return to the side of good when she saw what they truly were - that took tremendous courage."

Steve scowled, but to himself, it seemed, rather than anyone in the room. "People look at her in black and white. They either don't know or don't care that she and her brother were sixteen when Hydra got to them. Orphans on the street. Kids like that don't have the ability to make an informed choice or volunteer to be human guinea pigs. They had no way of understanding, but half the world still thinks she's a monster."

"Is it true, what Thor tells me your government did to her after the fight in Germany?"

"You mean the Raft, a straight jacket, drugs, and a shock collar?" Steve answered, his words sharp and biting. "Every bit of it. When I got to her, she looked like - like Bucky, and a lot of those people today. Incapable of thinking or acting for herself."

Bruce let out his breath as his own pulse jumped. "On that note, I think I need to exit the conversation - don't worry about it," he said, as Steve and Diana started to blurt apologies. "You don't really need me. Bucky's going to be fine. He's sleeping comfortably, and I already can't detect any of that gas in his system. I'll leave the vitals monitor on his hand; it'll page me if there's a sudden change in pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and he'll feel better without that halo on when he wakes up. In the mean time, I'm gonna go have Clint and Nat make some anonymous tips to the World Health Organization and the CDC about treatment."

"Okay. Thanks, Bruce."

* * *

Once Bruce Banner had gone, the past came crashing back over Diana, sending her heart racing as if she'd been dosed with the gas herself. To her relief, Rogers (she deliberately focused her mind on _not_ thinking of him as "Steve") was too preoccupied with his friend to notice.

On the other hand, that left his back to her, and Diana found it difficult to look at him from that angle. He was bigger than Steve had ever been, broader in shoulders and narrower in the waist, more than enough for someone of Diana's observation skills to know that this man was _not_ Steve. So why did her heart pound and her stomach twist when she saw his build and his fair hair above a leather jacket? Why wasn't that reaction at least starting to wane after weeks in this man's company?

Well, in all honesty, she avoided Rogers' company whenever possible, and was embarrassed to admit to herself that he and his team undoubtedly noticed. Maybe now she should finally just force herself to work through it.

Steve had been fond of Sam, Charlie, and Chief. He'd been gentle with Charlie in distress, kind and concerned to all of them as well as Diana.

But there was something else entirely in the way Rogers looked at Bucky, the gentle pressure of his hand on his friend's face. It was almost like desperation. Captain America was revered as a good man, the pinnacle of all human decency (to the point that Diana had assumed long before his return in 2012 that most of it had to be myth), but this suggested a side to him that might have been deliberately hidden.

Diana forgot her manners. "Are you lovers?" she blurted.

Rogers did a full-body jump, either because he'd forgotten she was here or her question had just shocked him that much. Then he blushed so deep red that she wanted to burst out laughing - he was even redder than Steve had been when...she wrenched her mind from those thoughts. "N-no," he stammered. "No, it...'s nothing like that. He's my best friend, that's all. And he's been through a lot, and he used to take care of me when I was sick, so now I..."

He was babbling. It was funny - and quite cute. Like - _damn the gods, why does everything Rogers does make me think of Steve?!_

Diana mustered her own scattered wits and tried to backtrack. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It's unusual nowadays, for men to be so close as you are to Bucky - or at least to admit it."

Steve - _Rogers_ \- huffed out his breath. "Yeah, I noticed. Especially when I came out of the ice. Strange. It was illegal when I went into the ice, but in a way, you could be friends with a guy, hug him, look after him without anyone assuming you were anything more than friends. Now it's perfectly legal - well, almost perfectly - and everyone's _looking_ for it."

Seeing Rogers in the media, especially after he returned in 2012, was very disconcerting to Diana, to the point that she was a little ashamed of herself now for not considering more how disconcerting it must have been for Rogers.

"I wish I could explain it to you," she said, making her voice light. "But I was conscious and paying attention for the past ninety years, and widely read before that. Even so, I can't explain how or why sexual mores developed the way they did among mankind. They make no sense."

Rogers choked out a laugh and looked down. After a minute, he returned his hand to Bucky's head, which he'd snatched away when she startled him. Bucky sighed softly as Rogers rubbed his temple. "At home, back _then,_ he used to work long hours. He'd come home exhausted, falling asleep in his food with a pounding headache. Aspirin, a drink, that helped, but we couldn't always afford it. So I did this. It made him feel a little better. After Austria, where he'd been a POW, I started doing it again. It helped with his nightmares. Sometimes he still lets me do it."

"That's very kind. For both of you, it must be a relief to have each other back again." She pushed her thoughts furiously away from something more bitter. "So the stories are true, then? Your heart belonged to Peggy Carter?"

Rogers blushed again, but his eyes grew damp, and Diana was embarrassed. She really didn't mean to keep hurting this man. _It's not his fault._

"I..." Rogers fumbled into his pocket for a compass, that he'd checked in the fog of the gas of Dubai when visibility was limited. It had caught Diana's eye, the soft smile of the woman in the photo. She'd seen it in the Smithsonian. The curators must have returned it to him. "Yeah," Rogers finally said. "Yeah. She passed away last year."

"I know. She led a great and full life, but I'm sorry for her loss." She probably shouldn't have put it like that, for this man displaced from his own time. It would only remind Rogers of the full life with Peggy Carter that he'd been denied. _And I'm sorry that you didn't get to be part of that full life. But you're alive. You get to live, even with someone from your old world._

That wasn't fair of her. Sometimes Rogers seemed so sad, and she wanted to snap at him to be grateful. She'd felt that way the first time she'd seen him on the Internet in 2012. _Completely unfair._

 _But why did the gods choose to let this Steve come back and not my Steve? What made Rogers deserve it?_

 _"_ _It's not about what they deserve. It's about what you believe."_

Why did it hurt so much again now, after so long, just from looking at the picture Bruce Wayne had found and now meeting this one man who shared one name?

It wasn't right to say any of this to Rogers at the bedside of his best friend. So Diana muttered an apology and left the room.

Outside on the soft grass, she avoided the milling Avengers until music floated over the light breeze. Curiosity piqued, Diana followed the sound until she came upon Wanda Maximoff, some distance away from the others, practicing a guitar.

The young human woman blushed when she saw Diana watching her, cringing in a way that made Diana think she expected to be teased, but Diana wouldn't do that. "I didn't know you were a musician," she said mildly. "That's very pretty."

Wanda relaxed and smiled. "My mother played guitar. I always wanted to learn. Until a few years ago, I never had time."

"Do you sing?"

The vigorous way Wanda shook her head made them both laugh. "No, no. I don't even like to sing."

"Very well, I won't demand singing, but you must play for me!" Diana sat down, and Wanda hesitated for only a moment before beginning.

It was a folk song, not like most of what Diana had heard in Paris, London, or even Themyscira, but eastern European, probably from Sokovia. It was very pretty, and Wanda played with passion, half-losing herself in memories. Diana couldn't guess the subject if Wanda was unwilling to sing, but she had a feeling it was the sort of song that a mother would play and sing to her young children.

"Did you have guitar in...where you come from?"

"Themyscira? Not exactly, not like your modern guitars. We had the veena and the lyre, other strumming instruments. No banjos either." As Diana hoped, Wanda laughed at the mental image.

Then Wanda stole a sidelong look at Diana, and though Diana couldn't see what Wanda was seeing, she could guess. "I don't mean to intrude," Wanda said hesitantly.

"It's all right. I know you can't help it." Diana sighed. She'd consciously tried to keep the picture off her mind when in Wanda's presence, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before it appeared before the telepath's mind's eyes.

Steve... _oh my Steve…_

Wanda caught her breath, and Diana smiled. "Yes, his name was Steve. That's...partly why, I suppose." _Why I can barely stand to look at your captain._ "I know, that's not fair."

"If I got offended because things people feel aren't fair, I'd have gone insane a week after they enhanced me," Wanda replied. "Sometimes I hate people who still have brothers and parents. Nothing about the world is fair."

 _I still have a mother. You must think I'm cruel for never going back to her._

Wanda answered her thought. "It's not up to me. I've learned not to judge. Hell, I've got no right, after what I've done."

"You were a child," Diana said, though she had little doubt that Wanda Maximoff would have had this argument before.

Wanda shrugged and looked away. "I knew the difference between right and wrong." Wanda's phone buzzed before Diana could respond to that. "Hello?"

" _Wanda, get up here. Bucky's flipping out."_

Wanda spun away, her guitar tumbling to the ground, and rose into the sky on streams of her red power, soaring back towards the house.

Diana stared after her, then laid the guitar carefully back in its case and carried it back to the house so it wouldn't get dirty. _At least I can do something somewhat useful for her._

By the time Diana arrived, the crisis had passed, and Bucky was asleep again. Wanda and Steve sat on either side of his bed, Wanda with her hand on his forehead still shimmering red. "What happened?" asked Diana.

"I don't think _that_ was the gas," said Bruce, studying his laptop.

Sam read the laptop over his shoulder, then straightened up, giving Diana a grim, weary smile. "This kind of thing can happen, even without being drugged. Guys wake up, don't remember where they are, then they panic. It's kind of risky for supersoldiers with weaponized arms."

"I can imagine," Diana sighed, noting Rogers' dishevelment and the disarrangement of the bedside table. The lamp that had been on the table was now on the floor, and there was a dent in the wall behind it. She had read about the Winter Soldier with horror and pity, sometimes with rage. For long years, he'd had no memory of his past life or even the lives he'd taken under Hydra's control, but now those memories were returning. They had to be horrific. "The people who did this to him..." Anger swept through her on Bucky's behalf again. She bit her tongue for Bruce Banner's sake, and Bruce shot her a grateful look.

But Rogers looked up, and there was a black rage behind his eyes that, for once, let Diana completely forget about the man who'd had the same name, fair hair, and blue eyes. She'd never seen her Steve with such naked fury in his gaze, the fury that promised carnage on evildoers...and vengeance. _Fitting, for an Avenger._ The Winter Soldier's true identity hadn't been known at the time that Captain America had been discovered in the ice. Rumor had it that Rogers hadn't known his best friend was still alive, let alone in Hydra's cruel hands, until the events of Washington several years later.

 _If I found my Steve, or Sammy or Napi or any dear friend I've made during my years in this world, treated the way Bucky Barnes was treated, I'd become a berserker. I don't know what would stop me._

Yet as far as Diana knew, Steve Rogers hadn't become a berserker. Hydra was his enemy, and he fought them fiercely, but for all he was an Avenger, somehow, he'd found it within himself not slaughter them indiscriminately.

That capacity for mercy reminded Diana again…

She sensed someone watching her and turned to find Thor in the doorway. "Can I be of any help, my friends?"

While Diana had no doubt that Thor would gladly step forward if Rogers asked for assistance for himself or Bucky, she also had no doubt that the offer was primarily addressed to her. Chagrined, she let herself out, and Thor followed her.

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

 _ **Coming Soon:**_ _Diana and Thor have another talk, and this time, Diana can share her grief with an all-too-sympathetic friend who knows what it means to outlive humans._

 **Please don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author's Notes:**_ _Many thanks to all of you for the wonderful reviews and feedback! Please keep it coming!_

 _ **Canon Note:**_ _I was intrigued and pleased by Eugene Brave Rock's reveal of who Chief Napi really is, and waffled on whether Diana had found that out by the time the Justice League formed. I decided she hasn't...but he's kept an eye on her._

 **Chapter Three**

"Did Wanda say something?" Diana asked once she and Thor were outside and away from earshot.

"Oh no. Despite her power to know many secrets, she's very discreet. But I confess, it's more difficult for me to restrain myself when I see a friend in pain," said Thor with a sad smile. "So here I stand. My arms have the strength of Asgard, but so many of my friends here in Midgard carry burdens that I can't lift for them, though I gladly would try."

Diana smiled. "I'm glad you came to Earth. You haven't been here long, but I think you and I see the same beauty in this world."

"I believe we do. The mortal humans are a young people, but they have stout hearts and quick minds. They're easy to love." Thor shot her an all-too-knowing look. "But therein lies our sorrow."

To Diana's embarrassment, her throat tightened. All she could do was nod. To save herself from answering, she pulled a copy of the picture from her pocketbook and handed it to him, all while avoiding eye contact.

"This picture is some years past. One of Earth's great former wars?"

She forced air back into her lungs and nodded, still unable to look at him. "The first, near the end. Almost exactly one hundred years ago."

"So all these noble men must be gone now." He put a hand on her shoulder, and she seized it. "I'm sorry, my lady. It's a bitter truth I've yet to face, so soon after I arrived here, but already I rue the day all my dear friends and brothers in arms will leave me."

"The first..." Damn, why was it suddenly so hard? It'd been a full century since she'd seen the armistice and grieved for Steve along with millions of others in a hundred nations, whose sons and daughters and lovers had never come back from those trenches and beleaguered towns. Why did it feel as if the scars were all ripped wide open again? "The first was the hardest." She had to whisper it. She had no voice to speak without breaking into sobs.

"Show me?"

Thor held the picture before her, and she brushed a fingertip over his face. "His name was Steve," she whispered, and her breath seized entirely.

"Ah." Of course, now Thor knew, like Wanda, the reason she'd been so odd towards his beloved Captain.

 _His name was Steve, his name was Steve,_ my _Steve, and he flew away in a plane to save the lives of millions, but instead of ice, he burned his life away in fire, and he never came back to me, except in a picture. I wish there'd been supersoldier serum back then. Maybe even that wouldn't have saved him. Maybe it would. It should have. He was a good man, a great man, and today there's another man who flew away to save the world, but he came back, and I almost hate him for it because my Steve didn't come back to me. A hundred years of human life have gone by, and I still miss him so much..._

She abandoned the effort to restrain herself. There wasn't any point; she'd lost control, and this near-stranger beside her knew it. So she wept into her hands harder than she'd done in a very long time, probably not since she'd stood beside the graves of Etta or Napi, Sammy, or Charlie.

Charlie had died in 1926 of liver failure. Sammy had died of cancer in 1939. Napi had lived to see the end of the Second World War and died peacefully of heart failure in 1963, leaving behind a son who was so like him, sometimes Diana had called him "Chief". Etta had also lived to a ripe old age, even marrying despite being "past her prime" in the eyes of many men by 1918, but she'd been gone in 1969, leaving behind three adopted children, seven grandchildren, and nineteen great-grandchildren. Diana remained good friends with the grandchildren and their families. She was a family legend, and not a one of them had expressed any suspicion of the strange foreigner in their midst who never aged.

Diana had been able to talk about the Great War and Steve's death with Etta's family and shed only a few nostalgic tears. Napi's descendants were delighted by the stories, and Diana loved to tell them. Napi's grandson – also the spitting image of him – had inherited his well-coded diary that Diana hadn't even known he'd made, and she'd delighted him by taking only a few hours to decode it (where no man or woman who didn't know the cypher had ever succeeded). Talking of the past with them was easy, even the parts that made her sad.

Why was she losing control so completely now?

Lois Lane hadn't been ashamed to sob her heart out for Kal-El when they laid him in his grave. Granted, she'd known him and loved him for far longer than Diana had known Steve... _does that matter?_

Thor said nothing, merely kept his big hand on her shoulder, and she clutched it with her own hand as if he might anchor her to this world, lest she be blown away by the maelstrom of grief. It tried to pull her off the ground as violently as it had that night, when she saw fire erupt in the sky and _knew_ Steve was gone, and every time since when she sat at the bedside of every man and woman dear to her from those first chaotic days and watched them breathe their last.

 _Why are their lives so short?! Why, how can they do this to us? How can we be here among them and have to watch them die again and again and there's nothing we can do to keep them? Why are their lives so short even without all this violence? How dare they put me through this over and over?_

"Have you really seen what it means to stay in this world?" she choked out. She shouldn't say this; it was unkind if Thor hadn't already come to understand. Why shouldn't he have a little peace among these people, the briefest chance to imagine that the ones he loved wouldn't leave him in the blink of an eye, leaving only memories and grief that rose and ebbed and never stopped?

Thor answered her after a long silence. "You mean, how easy it is to lose them?" So he did know. She hadn't wounded his heart cruelly...maybe. "I have, yes. I can't claim I have lost any man or woman as beloved to me as your Steve was to you, but I've seen my mortal friends perish far too easily and too young. Wanda's brother, for one. That he fell in battle as valiantly as your Steve is little consolation to her or those of us who knew him as shield brother."

The storm of grief and anger waned, and Diana stood swaying in the aftermath, trying to find her balance again.

Raised voices back at the house drew their attention out of the past. Thor made a little noise of dismay, and Diana saw the figures of Rogers and Bucky, gesticulating in argument. "What's happened?!"

Thor grimaced and explained, "That...happens, sometimes. Friend Bucky remains uneasy with what he was forced to under Hydra's control, or rather, with what he might be forced to do if he ever falls under the control of others again. Let Steve speak with him," he urged, putting out a hand to stop Diana from heading towards them. "Like you, I'd gladly intervene, but I've learned that Bucky doesn't regard such efforts with gratitude. He's been deeply wounded, and his trust is given to few, even among Steve's shield brothers."

"But what will he do?" Diana asked sadly, as Bucky stalked away, and Rogers watched him go with slumped shoulders. "Will he leave?"

"Sometimes he leaves for a time." Thor waited until she looked at him, then he smiled. "But he always returns. We've learned to be patient, and bid Steve have patience. I believe they'll endure."

"I knew a man like Bucky - well, since I've been in this world, I've known many men like that, but...I suppose it's the same. The first is the one we remember most." Diana showed Thor the picture. "Charlie. He was...nothing like Bucky in some ways," she mused, and was surprised to find herself grinning at the comparison. No, Charlie hadn't been good with fists or guns, though Steve and Sammy had insisted that once, Charlie'd been good with both until the front had taken its toll and left him ensnared by shell shock. "During the first war, it was called shell shock or battle fatigue. There're other names for it now: post-traumatic stress syndrome, combat stress."

"In Asgard, it's called the war fetters, though it may be felt by more than the victims of war. Only fools in any world may call in cowardice or weakness."

"I quite agree," Diana muttered, scowling. She'd gone on after the Great War to fight more than a few men whose side she'd been defending, just to prevent them from killing or beating their own soldiers for so-called cowardice. She'd even killed to protect such victims and spirited them away from the fronts of later wars, knowing they could endure no more.

There was little more for her to talk about with Thor, and this time, when she moved away, he didn't try to waylay her.

For the first time in the weeks she had spent among the Secret Avengers, Diana approached Steven Rogers alone.

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

 ** _Coming Soon:_** _The conversation we've all been waiting for (I know, I'm mean)!_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author's Note:**_ _Here it is, dear readers, the denouement of this short story! I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you so much for the feedback! Again, this plays a little fast and loose with the history of Superman in the DC cinematic universe, because I haven't seen all his movies, and because the background needed a little tweaking for the Avengers to fit in. Also, I took the easy way out in this fic and assume that at the conclusion of Ragnarok, Loki either fakes his death to escape (again) or Thor and Bruce just report his death to keep the discussion minimal._

 **Chapter Four**

Seeing Diana approach, Rogers misconstrued her intentions and held up a hand to stop her. "It's...better to just leave Bucky alone, when he...gets like that. He doesn't mean anything by it."

"I know," she reassured him. With a deep breath, she explained, "A man far too much like you told me the same about another good man, before you were born." Rogers blinked, and she gave him a wry smile, holding out the copy of the photograph. "Charlie. He was a sniper like your Bucky, but sometimes what he carried inside, it was just too much."

Rogers considered Charlie's picture. "Scottish?"

"Yes."

"My father went over there, only about a year before the war ended. I still have some of the letters he wrote to my mother. She told me she knew, the first time he talked about action, he'd never be the same," said Rogers.

Diana couldn't recall from her histories what the result had been. "Did he recover?"

Rogers shook his head. "He didn't make it home. He died during the spring offensive, before I was ever - " He looked up and saw Diana's face. "I, uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

A rueful laugh bubbled out of Diana. "Don't apologize. It's not your fault we have so many things in common." She tapped picture above Steve's face. "This was my Steve. Steve Trevor. He died preventing a final offensive, only a few days before the Armistice."

Steve Rogers stared at the photograph, at the fair-haired man named Steve among a band of people who were clearly not assigned soldiers. "Oh." Now he understood. "I'm sorry. That's must've been..." He looked at her, and she grinned, shaking her head.

"I know, you've been imagining any number of terrible reasons I avoided you, and the answer turns out to be entirely petty."

"No." He answered so quickly that she was startled, but he was even more resolute than Wanda or Thor. "It's not petty. There's nothing petty about it." His smile was sad. "After I came out of the ice and found out everyone I'd ever cared about was either dead or - or close to it - I almost refused to join the Avengers. Even though there was a crisis that threatened the whole world and picked up right where I left off in 1945, just the thought of being part of a group like that again, I didn't...didn't want to."

"But you did, and you saved the world," said Diana. "That's no small thing."

"Maybe. Lucky for me, nobody really reminded me much of them. Even by modern-day standards, this crowd is weird," he remarked, and laughter came to her more easily. "Though...if it makes you feel any better, when we were moving into Dubai, I saw you out of the corner of my eye and almost called you Peggy."

Diana raised her eyebrows. "I'm very flattered. I've read a great deal about her, although I didn't know she went into combat."

"Oh, believe me, she did." His eyes grew distant, no longer seeing Diana. "Sometimes it was on the streets a hundred miles from the front, other times it was undercover, but Peggy did plenty of fighting. After I went into the ice, she led the Howling Commandos more than once. Hell, _before_ I went into the ice, she was our commander in all but name, just as much as Colonel Philips."

Diana smiled. "I'm sorry I never met her." Maybe there were things she could share with Steve Rogers after all, things that he would understand, as no man left in this modern world could. "You know, when Steve Trevor brought me to London, I followed him into a meeting of British Command. Such a gaggle of self-important old men, all shouting over each other, completely removed from the people dying at the front...and I silenced the entire room just by having the temerity to enter while female. I had no idea why they were so shocked."

Steve laughed out loud. It was a lovely laugh, and closer to the house, Sam Wilson and Natasha Romanoff stopped their own conversation and turned in surprise. Romanoff beamed, the brightest smile Diana had seen from her yet. Wilson might grin more often, but there was a startled pleasure in his eyes that was hard to miss.

 _They're not used to hearing him laugh, at least not like this._

Steve hadn't noticed, and went on with his own story. "The first time I saw Peggy was at Camp Lehigh in basic training. I guess you know the British got over their scruples about women in the armed forces by the time another world war came around. We Americans were a bit behind them. One of the other recruits got salty at seeing a pretty lady giving orders. She laid him out with one punch. I think I fell in love with her right then."

 _How I wish Etta could have heard that story!_ "I wish I could claim that I won Steve Trevor's heart by wading into battle with British High Command, but I'm afraid not. I think he was too busy trying to keep me out of trouble. Well - one of the elderly Cabinet speakers did come out to thank me for silencing the room long enough for him to finish his speech. I was flattered until he turned out to be Ares, God of War, who I'd been brought into this world to destroy, and whispering vile advice to the leaders on all sides of the war."

Steve blinked, then laughed again, and Diana had to admit she'd been hoping he'd react that way. She'd managed to be flippant about that battle before, even with Napi's sons, but she'd never spoken of it to a stranger – other than Thor. "If I didn't know Thor, I wouldn't believe you."

"And Loki?"

Steve winced and glanced around. "Speaking of taboo subjects."

"Ah. I didn't realize. So," she made sure Thor wasn't in earshot, but lowered her voice anyway. "It's true that they're brothers?"

"Adopted, yeah. Thor and Bruce feel a little...complicated about him. Apparently, he switched sides for and against Thor more than once, but in the end, he saved both of their lives, as well as Asgard. Now he's dead. But hearing about him sets Barton's teeth on edge. Loki took Clint's mind under control with the scepter back in 2012. Not what you'd call forgivable."

"No. But I've seen what it does to people, having to fight those they love the most." Diana looked out over the hills in the direction Bucky had gone and dared to ask, "Is that why you refused the Sokovia Accords? Because it would've meant turning on your friend?"

Steve shook his head. "No. A lot of people assume that, but they're wrong; I'd made up my mind before the Vienna bombing. It was actually...if any one person was the reason, it was Peggy."

"Peggy? But wasn't..." Diana caught herself, but too late. She'd thought that Peggy Carter had died before the Sokovia Accords were passed, but assumed she must be mistaken.

Steve looked away and shook his head. "It was actually the day the Secretary of State came and made his pitch to us. The first day I ever heard the damn Accords existed. We were still arguing about it when...I got the news."

Aghast, Diana demanded, "And they still tried to force you to make a decision at a moment like that?"

He shrugged. "In all fairness, I didn't really participate in any discussions after that. But at Peggy's funeral, her grand-niece, Sharon, she said something. Something Peggy used to say. 'You compromise where you can, but when you can't, don't. Even where everyone is telling you what's wrong is actually right, and the whole world is telling you to move, it's your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say no, you move.'"

 _Powerful and wise words indeed. Like something Antiope would say._ Diana sighed. "The more I learn of your Peggy, the more I am sorry we never met. You should be proud, Steve, that her wisdom guided you at such a hard time."

But Steve looked troubled. He seemed to be working up to saying something more, so Diana patiently waited until he asked, "How do I know, though? Whether it's genuinely that something's wrong, or whether it's my own pride talking? That's what I…can't stop wondering now, how could I have been right about the Accords when it ended so badly? I keep going back over everything that happened since – since she died. If Tony and I - Tony Stark, I mean - if we'd managed to get it together before Siberia, Helmut Zemo's whole scheme might have failed, and half the Avengers wouldn't be fugitives now."

Diana saw movement in the distance, too far for Steve's eyes, and smiled to herself. It was Bucky Barnes, on his way back already. "I wasn't there, of course. You'll have to tell me. When could you have yielded?"

"After - several times, but the one I think about the most is after they brought Bucky in. Tony almost convinced me. If I'd signed then, it might've even helped Bucky. Tony would promised he'd get a psychiatric hospital instead of extradition to Wakanda to be executed for the bombing. Then we'd have been working together when Zemo made his move, and after that, I could've gone to Tony for help. We'd have figured Zemo's play then. At least there'd have been more of us in Siberia, and it wouldn't have ended the way it did."

Diana was surprised to see such doubts expressed by Steve Rogers, a man reputed to be so resolute, but maybe she was seeing the real man, rather than the myth. She couldn't blame him for doubts; they could be powerful and ugly things with hindsight before anyone's eyes – even hers. She rather doubted that Steve's nostalgic faith in Iron Man was so warranted. "Tony Stark's a very controlling man, you know. He reminds me of B - of Batman."

Steve chuckled. "I know Batman's Bruce Wayne; you can say it. Don't worry, we've all known that for years and haven't told, not even Tony, and Tony hates the guy."

"I can't imagine why; they are _exactly_ alike in all the worst ways," Diana agreed, and this time they both burst out laughing. "The combined weight of their egos in the same city would probably cause a black hole." They laughed harder.

"Their fathers were old business rivals; at least, that's the story I've heard," said Steve. He shook his head. "Sometimes, the things Wayne would write about Tony, it seemed more like he considered Tony a rival because of Iron Man. That he wanted to be the only superhero in town."

"And the conflict with Superman was further evidence, I know," Diana admitted. "It's...both more and less complicated than it seemed, and like your conflict with Stark, there were third-parties who wanted to ensure they'd destroy each other." She saw the look on Steve's face and said quickly, "Bruce didn't kill Superman. The creature did that - though Bruce and I both knew that if they hadn't let themselves be manipulated, we might have brought it down sooner, and saved his life."

"Who was he? I mean, I know it's none of my business, but I always wondered. Is he enhanced?"

Diana considered it, then decided to take a leap - or at least a small step - of faith in Steve Rogers. "His name was Kal-El. He's not from this world, though he was raised here by a human family. He was a good man, though in Bruce's defense, Kal-El wasn't entirely innocent in their rivalry. Nor was I. Any one of us could have spoken up - or better yet, we could have listened to each other. We failed to do that until it was too late to save him." She sat down on the grass and looked up at him, silhouetted against the sunset. "I failed my Steve too," she confessed softly. "I knew so little about humanity, and I didn't understand what he tried to make me understand about this world until it was too late. If I'd recognized the truth about mankind sooner, I might have been able to save him."

Steve sat down next to her. "The easiest time to make mistakes is when we're out of our depth. When I brought that plane down, I wasn't thinking clearly. I loved her. I wanted to get back to her. But part of me was already giving up. Red Skull was dead. Zola was as good as dead, or so I thought. I didn't want to go home without him."

"Bucky?"

"Yeah, the thought of facing his sisters and his mother…but that wasn't all. I didn't know how I'd live without the war, without Hydra to fight. She was gonna teach me to dance. It seemed crazy. That wasn't my world. At least part of me was relieved as the plane went down, that I had a way out of it." He squeezed his eyes shut, and Diana's throat tightened in sympathy. His voice was rough when he was finally able to go on. "When I woke up, I was glad...at first. Glad I hadn't succeeded. Then I realized it wasn't 1945, and...I found out everything else. Everyone I ever cared about was dead. She was 92. Sometimes I think I must've been punished for something. It's just a question of what."

Diana stared at him in complete disbelief and barely managed not to blurt out her disgust. She rallied herself and kept her voice light. "You're Christian, yes? Let me guess: Catholic?"

Steve chuckled. "Is it that obvious?"

"I've learned that it's very impolite to poo-poo a man's faith, but sometimes I can't help myself, because _that_ notion of yours is...I'm at a loss for words, and I speak hundreds of languages. _Loco, absurde._ Poppycock, balderdash." As she hoped, he laughed. "There's more to this universe than you or I or even Thor can fathom, but there's no supreme being with any sense of justice who'd inflict a fate like that on you as _punishment_ , Steve Rogers."

"I know. Realistically, yeah, I know that." He smiled sadly at the sky. "What can I say, I was Irish Catholic. Maybe not so much anymore. Guilt's hard to shake."

"That's true no matter what you believe of the greater universe, but I know of no gods or mortals that can move time backwards for us to fix our mistakes. And Steve - my Steve - he told me, 'it's not about what anyone deserves. It's about what you believe.'" Steve Rogers looked thoughtful at that. It pleased Diana. "Hardly anyone in this world gets what they deserve, least of all the people who're hurt the most. The ones who deserve to suffer the most often suffer the least. Still, people like you and I, the Avengers, and Batman, we struggle somewhere in the center."

"That's profound."

"I've had a hundred years to figure it out, so I hope so." They both laughed. Farther down the grounds, Bucky was back in sight of the other Avengers. He saw Steve with Diana, but didn't move to join him, instead heading for the house. Diana mused, "In the first few weeks after you and Bucky escaped, Stark wasn't shy about revealing the Winter Soldier's role in his parents' death. Yet he said very little about you."

"I sent him a letter," said Steve, and pulled a small, outdated flip phone from his pocket. "And the mate to this. He hasn't called."

"No, but you and your friends have appeared in public...what, some five or six times now since? Iron Man can reach Mach 2. If he wanted to intercept you, he could do it. He hasn't," Diana pointed out. "He could have tracked us from Dubai or any of the places you've fought to your safe houses. He hasn't done that either. Nor has Vision, who they say can see the entire Internet."

Steve stared at her. Diana was surprised that this thought hadn't occurred to him. Surely at least a few of his friends might have reached that conclusion even if Steve couldn't.

"I could've...sometimes he and Vision and Rhodey have operations not that far away. I could've gone to them. I haven't."

"Why not?"

Steve sighed and gestured with his head towards the house. "I can't let him hurt Bucky again. Hell, Buck's less afraid of that than I am. That's what - what we argue about the most, including today. He thinks the Avengers could reunite if he weren't here. Even if he's right, I think it's too high a price to pay. Bucky was innocent. It was Hydra, not him."

"That's hard for people to accept who've seen his face when he was the Winter Soldier."

"I don't care," Steve snapped, his voice hard and angry. This was a side of Captain America she'd imagined to exist but hadn't met before - as intense and rigid as Bruce Wayne had been at his worst. But Diana couldn't find cause to condemn Steve's feelings. "They can't have him. It wasn't him. He had no control, no choices, no memory. Hydra was full of monsters and most of them got away with it, but the people now, they don't get to take it out on him. I won't let them."

"What does _he_ say about that?" asked Diana gently.

Steve sighed and rested his elbows on his knees. "It...varies. Sometimes he agrees with me. He deserves the chance to live. Peggy, the Howlies, even Howard, they all got to live. I get to live. He went through the worst of us all. He has a right to try and survive."

"And other times?"

"Other times he doesn't think he's worth it. He remembers what Hydra made him do. It's hard for him to remember that it…wasn't really him."

Diana leaned back on the hillside and watched stars coming out. "It was hard for me to accept at first, that human souls have the capacity for both light and darkness, and the choice lies with them alone, not with the gods. And how few people get what they deserve. Sometimes I still have to remind myself. I envied your Peggy, that she got you back. I don't envy your Bucky any of what he's suffered, but...maybe _you_ returning to this world was finally something _he_ deserved, after so many years of suffering. You, the one man who would always speak up for him no matter what he was forced to become."

Steve looked back at her, puzzled. "I don't..."

Diana sat up and patted his back. "I'm saying you're a good man, Steve Rogers. I thought all the good that people spoke of you had to be myth, but now that I know you, I see they're right. You bring all that's good in mankind, and fight for the people who need it the most. You don't give up on those you love, even when all the world is telling you that you should."

Steve blinked, then his face fell, and he scoffed bitterly. "Tell that to Tony."

Diana nudged the flip phone. "Why should I? He knows already." Steve looked down at the phone as if he'd forgotten it was there - let alone what it represented.

The sounds of Wanda's guitar floated over the grounds, but Wanda wasn't the one playing it. The song was something vaguely familiar – American Western, maybe a dance tune, Diana thought. On the garden terrace behind the house, Natasha and Sam were dancing, and a few moments into the song, a figure with long dark hair and a bigger, darker figure went to join them.

"My God," Steve breathed. Diana looked at him. His expression was utterly stunned, then she thought he might cry. "I haven't seen him dance since Brooklyn."

Bucky must have been teaching Wanda; their movements were more hesitant than Natasha and Sam. But Diana could see why this would move Steve so much. "Shall we join them?"

"No! No, that's okay - I mean, you're welcome to - Thor could probably use a partner." Steve gave her a sheepish smile. "I can't dance."

Diana stood up but looked him over dubiously. "I can't imagine that's for any reason other than lack of trying."

Steve flushed in the dim light and looked at his knees again. "Peggy was gonna teach me. Never had the chance. I just...can't."

Diana sighed. "My Steve taught me. Not how to dance altogether - we danced in Themyscira – but he taught me how your people dance." She gave him a knowing smile. "It was nearly thirty years before I danced again, but I did."

"What...made you decide to?"

She knelt in front of him. "I was in Russia near the end of the second world war. Surrounded by men - boys, really - who hadn't eaten a good meal or slept a full night in years. Let alone seen a woman. But rather like Amazons, Russians don't need a partner of the opposite sex to dance – it can bring joy even without romance. So they still danced when they were off duty, no matter how much blood they shed, no matter how cold and bitter the nights, because it reminded them of who they were. The night I joined them, they danced for me, and at last, one mustered the courage to ask me to partner with him for a slow dance, like I'd danced with Steve before. I couldn't save them all, or heal their hurts, let alone bring peace to this world. But that night when I danced again, I felt closer to my Steve than since I lost him."

Steve's eyes glittered in the darkness. Diana held out her hand. "I never had the honor of knowing your Peggy, but I don't believe she'd have wanted you to refuse to ever dance."

Steve's laugh sounded a little closer to a sob. "No, she'd have words for me, for being so dramatic."

Diana dared to press him. "Let me teach you. Let your Bucky see you learn. Let your friends hear you laugh. It will help all of you." She stood up but kept her hand outstretched. "Monsieur?"

He took her hand and let her pull him to his feet, and she couldn't hold back a grin at his startled expression to see how easily she could lift his weight. No, a supersoldier wouldn't expect a woman to be able to do that. _I can carry your weight and then some, Steve Rogers. Let's see what we can teach each other._ "Madame?"

She took his arm, and they went down the hill to the jaw-dropped astonishment - and utter delight - of the Avengers.

It wouldn't last, of course. But for a few hours, they could laugh, and they could sway. They learned that Thor and Sam had fine singing voices, and Clint and Wanda both played the guitar. They found that Natasha was exquisitely graceful, and Wanda was a fast learner. Steve...had not so much on any of the aforementioned qualities when it came to dancing - at all - but he was game to try.

So all was right with the world for this one night, and when the world went wrong again, they would all remember this.

 **~Fin~**


End file.
